Paris. With 15,000 fans against him, Cuban boxer Erislandy Álvarez defeated local Sofiane Oumiha on Wednesday to become Olympic lightweight champion (63.5 kg), the island’s first boxing gold in Paris 2024.
Álvarez prevailed by split decision (3-2) in a thrilling fight on the centre court of Roland Garros, where the crowd cheered his rival on.
An Olympic debutant, Alvarez thus saved the pride of the Cuban boxing team, which has lost its impressive dominance of the Olympic competition, hit by the escapes from the island of champions such as Andy Cruz.
Three years after winning the Tokyo Olympic tournament with four golds, the so-called ‘Flagship’ of Cuban sport won gold for Álvarez and bronze for Arlen López in the middleweight (-80 kg) category in Paris.
Both Arlen López and Julio César La Cruz (92 kg), eliminated in his debut, failed in their attempt to achieve a third consecutive crown with which they would have equaled the Olympic boxing record.
These disappointments were offset by the emergence of the talented Erislandy Álvarez, who at 24 years old responded to the trust by becoming one of the great sensations of Parisian boxing.
On Wednesday, under a pressure cooker on the iconic tennis court, Alvarez did not resent the pressure and displayed his cunning and footwork to prevail on the scorecards of the five judges in the first round.
Oumiha, silver medallist at Rio 2016, then showed her mettle with more effective punches, leaving the gold medal up for grabs in the final round.
Despite the support of the crowd, Alvarez did not take a step back and continued to find spaces to score points until he secured a victory that he celebrated with a somersault and a euphoric succession of punches in the air.
Canada’s Wyatt Sanford and Georgia’s Lasha Guruli took the two bronze medals.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak won gold in the men’s middleweight (80kg) category by split decision.
Kazakhstan’s Nurbek Oralbay took silver, while Cuba’s Arlen Lopez, a two-time Olympic champion, and Dominican Cristian Pinales won the bronze medals.
Spanish Ayoub Ghadfa will fight for gold in the super heavyweight division
Spain’s Ayoub Ghadfa defeated France’s Djamili-Dini Aboudou by unanimous decision in the super heavyweight (+92 kg) semi-finals on Wednesday and will fight for the gold medal.
In the first two rounds, the Iberian built up a sufficient lead to compensate for the brief knockdown he suffered in the third round, which thrilled the crowd in the stands.
The fans greeted the unanimous decision of the five judges with boos, while Aboudou conceded defeat by raising the Spaniard’s arm.
On Saturday, Ghadfa will face Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov, the gold medal winner at Tokyo 2020, in the first Olympic final for Spanish boxing since Rafael Lozano’s silver at Sydney 2000.
The Spanish team, now coached by Lozano himself, had already won a bronze medal in Paris from Emmanuel Reyes in the heavyweight (-92 kg).
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– 2024-08-13 00:10:18
